Why Are We All So Angry?

Lest We Forget.

Every November the world remembers the end of the Second World War and the defeat of Nazi Germany. The ideology of fascism defeated, the horrors of xenophobic genocide revealed to the world, and the victory of democratic liberty held high.

Seventy years later, the far-right has returned - confined not to Europe, but to the entire Western world. This time around, the problem is far more pervasive and insidious. It is not confined within national boundaries and exiled to the periphery of political discourse elsewhere; it is orchestrated internationally. It is not limited to the delusions of a few charismatic, power-hungry politicans; indeed, it is likely not even the true belief system of those pulling the strings.

This is weaponised fascism. It is indoctrinated, stirred up by the wealthy to spark a culture war, the opening volleys of which are being seen on the streets of Britain and the United States today.

It is important to say this early, and clearly: this is not a debate. This is a matter of right and wrong; of good and evil. On one side of the police lines stands a group campaigning for an end to police brutality, racial inequality and discrimination. Their ranks are diverse - a variety of generations, creeds and backgrounds standing up for a fairer world. On the other side of the barricades, a predominantly middle-aged male stands. They are drinking on the streets, disturbing bystanders in parks, attacking the police towards whom just seven days ago (when the shoe was on the other foot) they abhorred violence. Today, they gave Nazi salutes at the Cenotaph in London – whilst supposedly 'protecting' the statue of Winston Churchill, lest the memory of his leadership against Nazi Germany be forgotten. The cognitive dissonance is deafening.

As with the other challenges facing our society in 2020, these problem hasn't appeared overnight. It has been deliberately, slowly and carefully shaped and fuelled over the last twenty years through some of the press and right-wing politicians. Whilst we now face a hugely complex problem, the reason for it coming to be is remarkably simple: if you can whip up fury and anger towards something, and position yourself as the righteous protector against that something, the people will support you. It is the easiest way to achieve this support. Why waste time building a political career free from scandal or corruption, when you can simply make that scandal and corruption meaningless? Why bother finding and implementing tough policies that gain broad support when you can make the populace so furious about something that your policies are irrelevant? If sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, as Oscar Wilde suggested, populism is the lowest form of government.

Over the last twenty years, the rich and powerful have lobbied constantly for evermore corrupt leaders and governments. The benefits of such leaders is plainly apparent: simply follow the money.  Tax breaks for the rich such as Donald Trump's recent enactments, back-handers for party donors such as the Conservative Party's Robert Jenrick and his recent housing planning scandal. The list of examples is (almost literally) endless. They have done so – to borrow some marketing parlance – using an omni-channel strategy, which we'll come to later.

Their control of the best-selling newspapers and much of the broadcast media in the United Kingdom have allowed these titles to peddle almost daily attacks on the usual suspects: migrants, ethnic minorities, the European Union. They are frequently riddled with inaccuracies, and often downright nonsense. The similarities with headlines in Nazi Germany newspaper Der Stürmer and some of the Daily Express leading stories are not coincidental - they share an ideological origin of xenophobia for propaganda purposes. Some of these stances would make FOX News blush.

These headlines are all formed of one simple message: they're coming to get you. They're coming to get your freedoms, your jobs, your culture, your benefits etc. In reality, of course, they're usually coming here to better themselves, to support our NHS, to pick our fruit. Immigrants in the United Kingdom are net contributors to our society.

The reason this messaging works is because people in the United Kingdom (and the United States) have had things taken away from them. They feel the struggle in their wallets, and recognise the stalling decline in living standards, and despair at the declining state of the high street in their local towns as businesses fold and buildings fall into decline. The cost of the financial crash, and subsequent austerity, enabled the longest squeeze on living standards in peacetime since the Napoleonic Wars. It is little wonder people are frustrated.

What's more, this squeeze impacts people of every generation. Though often stoked by into a generational war between avocado-scoffing, latte-loving millenials and their money-hungry, war-time nostalgia-loving boomer predecessors, the truth is that no one besides the very richest echelons of society has done particularly well in the last decade.

Against this backdrop of simmering discontent, people have been turned towards hatred of 'the other guy'. Whether it's the immigrant seeking the American Dream, the Black Lives Matter protestor who simply doesn't want to be shot dead while going about their daily life, or the entitled, spoilt millenial complaining because, although they have a nice iPhone, they want to be able to afford their own roof over their heads. Even the far-right protestors – though targetting their anger in such a vile and disgusting fashion – has the right to be angry. They recognise that things used to be better, and they want things to go back to that. They are misplaced in their anger – wrong for believing that the falling living standards or abandoned town centres is the fault of those 'bloody foreigners' – but it is not unreasonable to pine for better days.

Each one of these aims (not actions) is entirely reasonable. No one wants to damage their own livelihood or family, when push comes to shove. The problem is that we have all been played: our frustration has been deliberately channeled to hate others, sometimes each other. Native vs. immigrant; remainer vs. leaver; traditionalists vs. antifa. Year after year, the messages that drive these ideologies home have been repeated through the media.

The Daily Mail and Daily Express have spewed anti-European, anti-immigrant bile on a daily basis; right wing ideologues like Nigel Farage have not just been given a platform by gutless broadcasting companies, they have been propelled to stardom by having their extremist views legitimised.

LBC have even granted psychotic racist Katie Hopkins her own show, and turned Nigel Farage into their drive-time star. Thankfully, as of this week, neither remain employed by the station. Unfortunately, the likes of Nick Ferrari (who presents a softer, more pervasive of xenophobic discourse) and TalkRadio's Julia Hartley Brewer spout rabble-rousing, sensationalist hatred on the airwaves daily.

Shady right-wing think-tank lobbyists like Kate Andrews and 'journalists' like Isobel Oakshott appear almost-weekly on Question Time - their questionable motives and funding backgrounds unchallenged or glossed over by the BBC.

Vote Leave were found guilty of breaching electoral law during the referendum - a campaign where dozens of now debunked claims were microtargeted across Facebook and social media channels to deliberately enrage. Whether it was the £350m a week to the NHS, the impending onslaught of Turkish immigrants when they joined the EU, or the multitude of myths peddled about EU authority over our laws and immigration, these claims were repeated during the entire referendum (and ever since.)

This is the omni-channel approach. It was a carefully orchestrated campaign, with ringmasters like Dominic Cummings (remember him?), Steve Bannon and the extremely dislikeable Darren Grimes using technology and bending (or breaking) the law in order to achieve their goals. Every seed of fear and hatred, every move to legitimise abhorrent racist views, and every lie told was deliberate. Without the anger, people are mostly too rational to believe the nonsense they fell for. Without the rising tide of anti-intellectualism – the idea that people have "had enough of experts" espoused by none other than Leave-supporting, chronic-backstabbing political viper Michael Gove – the broadcast media may have challenged the lies. For the avoidance of doubt, they should have anyway, but since the BBC's governance is essentially now an arm of the Conservative Party, it's not surprising they didn't bother.

These people unlocked the nastier side of humanity: the greed, the envy, the xenophobia, and weaponised it for electoral gain. Now, they've opened Pandora's Box. The Brexit they voted for will not make life better; it will make life worse. Much worse. Add to that a population confined indoors for an unprecedented three months due to a global pandemic, and tensions are going to boil over.

Now the problem is out of control. There is no tactic to deal with it, other than to double-down on the lies and the anger. Trump threatening martial law in the United States is a prime example, but perhaps even more revealing is Boris Johnson's abject failure to deal with the Dominic Cummings fiasco. An enormous lead in the polls has been wiped out in just a month. Under normal circumstances, Cummings (and Johnson) would by now have been thrown to the wolves. But the Tories know that Cummings and Johnson have delivered them Brexit – the unicorn-filled sunlit paradise that doesn't exist – and a large electoral majority based on lies. There is no other strategy, no substance, no Plan B. Cummings has to stay because he's all they've got and his techniques are the only way they know how to win majorities. If they have to smear half the population, undermine the judiciary and create a "hostile environment" for ethnic minorities along the way? So be it.

The time-bomb is now ticking. Brexit lies just six months away, and it's looking increasingly likely that there won't be a deal and that the Conservatives will blame both the failure to agree a deal – and the ensuing carnage – on coronavirus. Refusing to request an extension and exiting on WTO terms will further compound damage to a British economy that has already contracted by 20% in one month due to coronavirus. The double-whammy will be an economic shock unlike anything we've ever seen. All of the anger and frustration borne out of the economic crisis might fade away for a few months once the patrotic emblem of Brexit is held aloft, but when the job losses mount (whether caused by Brexit or coronavirus is irrelevant, there will be job losses) and the dawning realisation that things aren't actually getting better, that anger will quickly return.

When it does, how will it pan out? Will there be a new scapegoat? As James O'Brien predicted, Leavers would blame Remainers for the failures of Brexit – a prediction that came true long before Brexit actually arrived. Will it be the European Union? Will it be antifa? Rest assured, the Conservatives and their bank rollers will find someone, because whoever's fault it is, it won't be theirs. They will be left with no choice but to further double-down on the rhetoric and provide distractions where possible. The recent scandal over the Fawlty Towers removal from UKTV a prime example. It is a symptom, not the problem.

All of this means that the fractures and divisions in our society aren't going anywhere. In fact, they're going to deepen. There's no easy way out of this crisis. You can't just put all the anger back in the box. You can't take the cause of the anger away because we've voted to make the causes worse. You can't easily change the discourse because people are entrenched in their views. The bot armies on Twitter are out in force to further entrench those views and stoke up yet more division.

It is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. The turkeys – understandably tired of the Christmas tradition – are successfully duped into voting for their own demise. The turkeys who continue campaigning for it to end are labelled as traitors, terrorists, rabid lefties etc. And as the big day approaches, the turkeys become ever-more excited for their coming salvation.

"I will provide a propagandistic casus belli. Its credibility doesn't matter. The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth." - Adolf Hitler, 1939.